The 13 tracks average six minutes for a start. And even if they're often beautiful in that Milky Way kind of way, the song construction is out the window (the single Two Places at Once is an edit of an eight minute epic).
Then there is the other thing. SA sounds unbelievable. Apart from MWP's incredible stock of guitar gadgets, most tracks have bottomless pits of sound with all manner of bright fish in them. Violins, voices, ploppy noises, mermaids, more guitars, unspecific goings-on... Day of the Dead and Lost My Touch are headphone heaven in the early Pink Floyd sense: every hole has a sound in it but there is still space everywhere.
Loveblind, Two Places at Once and Business Woman are the closest things to pop songs but tunes, riffs, even hooks lurk in the soup at every turn. So start fishing because they are not going to bite you.
There is still rocking and rolling going on of course: it is nice to hear SK feeling what he is singing and The Maven has what can only be an axe-maniac thrashing out the last "movement".
There are periods of classic jangle for the old-timers too but this record is an adventure, not an instant hit. These days you have to view a Church album as a long-term investment.
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